We took the Palani Ghat road for the trip. One is through Pollachi, Udumalpet and hitting the hills.Distance 169 km

Next through, Palladam, Dharapuram and again the hills. Distance 196 km.Both differ by 20 mins or so.

We planned to hit the hills by second one, through Palladam, Dharapuram for no big reason. Early morning motor ride was a pleasant one. Stopped at Dharapuram for breakfast in a Veg Bhavan.

In Palani, we asked our local google mapsetters, guess whom they are, our loyal auto drivers, the road leading to ghat road. This road first starts as an ordinary one, and then moves slowly climbs the mountain.

Palani Villages

Palani Hills

Ghat Road..

No big scenery stops in between, but its a pure ghat road, single lane road with bushy side steeps.

Total hairpin bends are 14. And an old tower standing at the first hairpin bend, built in 2009.

More Pictures showing the steep route. Its possible to drive in day time, but not advisable in night. Usually less vehicles takes this route. If there approaches a big vehicle on the opp direction, then we have to stay back. The road is not that much safe for not so experienced drivers.

More Pictures..

Palani Ghat road joins here with the kodaikanal main road..The next day, we started downhill thru the kodaikanal road.

September 8, 2015

Small Wonders in the morning skyHumming birds fill up the horizonDaffodils and Roses in the airLilies and Lotuses bloom the pondAll, but one remains silentThe MountainsNone can move itThe Wind, The CloudsThe Sun, The DarknessAlways a SageTelling the Truth of LifeTo Live and Let DieIn a Peaceful Way..

May 19, 2015

After 42 years of
struggle with life in comatose state, the nurse Ms. Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug
died today.

The King Edward
Memorial hospital (KEM), Mumbai, where she joined as a junior nurse, kept and looked
after, after the sexual assault made by one ward boy, on November 23rd,
1973.

Authr Pinki Virani wrote the story of Aruna shanbaug and in her book, "Aruna's Story'.

The author narrated the incident and the after’s as such, “Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki choked her with a dog chain before raping and robbing her, oxygen supply to parts of her brain was cut off, and she became bereft not only of the power of speech but of the power to express herself in any other way. She also became cortically blind, lost the use of her limbs and the control of her muscles, and suffered a kind of emotional disability, which is manifested in a inappropriate laughter and bouts of screaming. Her memory and most of her other mental faculties were also gone..”

The petition filed
by Author Pinki Virani to end the life support of Ms. Shanbaug to unbear her
vegetative state, was rejected by the court in 1980, as the hospital and the nurses
of the KEM hospital pledged to serve her till her death. It’s a humanitarian gift,
as the court called the care given by the hospital staff as ‘Iconic’.

On that day of sexual
assault, she was throttled with a dog chain and her vital nerves, which supply
oxygen to the brain were cut off and there she plunged into the vegetative
state.

Really it’s a wonder,
when each new batch of student nurses came, they were introduced to her and
told that she was one of them and continues to be one of them.

I appreciate their devotion
to serve the severely sick with compassion and we can guess how many batches of
nurses came in and moved out in these 42 long years. And taking her as one
among them and let her live and die on her own, is a huge humanitarian task.